Pros

Cons

Not the fastest LTE connections.
Still a relatively low-res screen with big bezel for this price category.

Bottom Line

The iPhone 8 Plus may promise better augmented reality experiences than its smaller counterpart thanks to its dual cameras.

29 Sep 2017Sascha Segan

The iPhone 8 Plus—really the iPhone 7s Plus, when you think about it—may be the sweet spot in Apple's new phone lineup. Its dual cameras will enable better augmented reality experiences than the iPhone 8, and its bigger screen offers a better spotlight for high-intensity applications powered by the new A11 processor. And, starting at $799 (for 64GB), it's significantly less expensive than the iPhone X. While we wish Apple had been more innovative with its screen and modem here, the 8 Plus is our Editors' Choice for iPhones right now.

Design

From the front, you may have some trouble telling the iPhone 8 Plus apart from the 7 Plus. At 6.24 by 3.07 by 0.3 inches and 7.13 ounces, it's the same size, but heavier. It has a similar 5.5-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 LCD, although it's been enhanced with True Tone, which gives it better white balance in different kinds of lighting. The Touch ID home button sits below the screen, as usual. There's a Lightning port, but no headphone jack, and the phone is water-resistant.

Flip over the 8 Plus to see the difference from last year's model. The phone now has a glass back, rather than smooth metal. It also supports wireless charging with all the popular Qi-compatible chargers. We put it on both Mophie and Samsung wireless charging pads and it charged just fine, if slowly, at about two-thirds of the speed of standard wired charging. Apple says a firmware update will enable faster wireless charging in the future.

The Fastest iPhone Yet

The A11 Bionic processor has six cores, two of which are "high performance" and four of which are "efficiency" cores. That's more than the four-core A10 and the two-core A9, but the whole core thing is a red herring; it's possible to design a fast processor with few cores, or many cores.

What makes it Bionic? Well, bionics is the science of combining biological and electronic parts and methods, so I think it's referring to the new Neural Engine. The Neural Engine is a custom block of the A11 dedicated to machine learning. On the iPhone 8 Plus, it doesn't do much yet, although it's involved in scene recognition in the camera app. But iOS 11 includes an API called CoreML that helps third-party developers integrate machine learning into their own apps—recognizing types of food or clothing when they train the camera on them, for instance.

The iPhone 8 and the 8 Plus have the same processor, although the 8 has 2GB of RAM and the 8 Plus has 3GB. That resulted in very similar benchmarks for the two phones. They're both the fastest phones we've ever tested, benchmark-wise, and in the same class as the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro.

On the iPhone 8 Plus, we got about 214k on the Antutu benchmark, 4,255 on Geekbench single-core, and 10,298 on Geekbench multi-core. The iPhone 7 managed 165k, 3,500, and 6,024, respectively. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 hit 175k, 1,870, and 6,500.

For graphics, the iPhone 8 Plus' 65,011 scored on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark is nearly double that of the iPhone 7's 37,825. But wait! This is one area where Apple's steadfast refusal to improve its screen resolution does it no good. Last year's iPhones hit the 60 frame-per-second sync limit on the GFXBench graphics benchmarks, and this one does too. This iPhone's GPU is powerful enough to drive Apple's "ProMotion" 120Hz tablet screen; I just wish the phone had one.

For a real-world application, we recorded a 2-minute, 4K video, applied a filter in iMovie, and exported it to 720p. The iPhone 8 managed the export in 24 seconds compared with the iPhone 7's 31 seconds. That's a noticeable difference, but we couldn't find other apps where the difference between 7 and 8 performance was easily visible; iOS apps are just too well-architected for a range of phones.

The iPhone 7 is already quite fast in current applications, including the simple early ARKit apps. The open question is whether all of this neural and graphics power will make the iPhone 8 Plus more effective in future AR experiences.

We also took an in-depth look at the iPhone 8 Plus' modem performance and, as the chart below shows, it does better than the 7 Plus and the 6s Plus on all four major US networks. But Apple could have done better. This year's iPhones lack the gigabit LTE speeds currently being used by Bell and Telus in Canada, and which will come from AT&T and T-Mobile next year in the US. They lack 4x4 MIMO, which helps in weak-signal areas and with recovery from dead zones, and which the Samsung Galaxy S8 has. They also lack T-Mobile's coverage-extending Band 71, which is so far only on the LG V30.

For Wi-Fi, we got slightly better performance on the iPhone 8 Plus than on the 7 Plus, but not so much that anyone would notice. The phone supports 802.11ac on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, just like the iPhone 7 series.

Apple says the iPhone 8 Plus has roughly the same battery life as the 7 Plus. We got 5 hours, 13 minutes of video playback time over LTE, which is shorter than the 6 hours we got with the iPhone 7 Plus. However, the phone should fast-charge with high-wattage chargers, Apple says, all the way up to a MacBook charger. Using an iPad charger, for instance, nearly doubled charging speed—so if you're buying a new iPhone, a $19 iPad charger is a great investment.

Also, when you're thinking of iPhone battery life results, remember two things. First, you probably won't use your phone on full brightness (which will extend usable life). Second, iPhones leak battery in the background less than Android phones do. You won't be surprised by a dead battery if you pick up your 8 Plus after not having used or charged it overnight.

Two Cameras Are Better Than One

The 8 Plus has dual 12-megapixel cameras: a regular one, with f/1.8 aperture, and a 2x telephoto one, with f/2.8. There's also a 7-megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.2 aperture, the exact same one as on the iPhone 7 Plus. The telephoto lens is not optically stabilized, unlike on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and the iPhone X. For now, the dual cameras are mostly about 2x zoom photography and bokeh, for selective-focus portrait mode like on the iPhone 7 Plus.

In the lab, the Note 8 shows a bit more color saturation in good light, and a bit less noise in low light. The Note 8's 2x lens is a bit sharper than the iPhone's in good light, but drops out of the race in low light. The 8 Plus does especially well in outdoor night scenes, balancing reflections off of street signs with darker areas.

Compared with the iPhone 7 Plus, the iPhone 8 Plus isn't much of an improvement. Now, the 7 Plus is already very, very good—that's sort of the point here. But Apple is marketing the 8 Plus as having significant camera advances, and we just didn't see them. You have to go back to the Galaxy S7 generation, or the iPhone 6, to see a major jump in quality with the iPhone 8 Plus.

The iPhone 8 Plus can also do Portrait Lighting, a filter that makes people look silhouetted on a dark background. I'm not a fan, but the feature already appears to be widely popular (then again, so are Snapchat filters that make you look like a dog). If you want this feature, you need to get a Plus or an X, not the smaller iPhone 8.

Portrait mode is still clearly in beta, however. When we photographed one of our staffers outdoors, the iPhone's portrait and bokeh algorithms got thrown off by stray hairs in a way that didn't happen with the Note 8. This is something that can be fixed in software, and we're pretty sure that Apple will do so. With other subjects, such as food and flowers, the iPhone 8 Plus delivered better background blur using its dual lenses.

Two new features have come aboard for video: the phone can now record 4K video at 60 frames per second, and slow-motion 1080p video at 240fps. With 24, 30 and 60fps options for 4K video, the iPhone 8 Plus outpaces its Android competition (and older iPhones) in giving videographers a range of viewing styles.

But if you're a serious iPhone videographer, you may want to wait for the X. The 8 Plus' 2x lens is not optically stabilized, which means motion isn't as smooth when you're taking videos as it would be on the iPhone X or the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

Apple is going big on augmented reality in the next few years. That's why we're uncomfortable telling iPhone buyers to purchase a model that lacks dual cameras. While Apple's ARKit can do augmented reality with a single camera, it's clearly limited. Demos we've seen show ARKit only able to map horizontal surfaces like tables and floors, not walls or whole rooms.

This is where we get into pure speculation. Apple swears up and down that the Plus' second camera gives it absolutely no advantage over a single-camera device for AR. But all of my experience with AR says otherwise: that second camera, in the future, could provide enhanced AR capabilities, such as the ability to detect vertical surfaces (in other words, walls).

iOS 11: Built for AR?

The iPhone 8 Plus, like every iPhone Apple currently sells, runs iOS 11. We have a full iOS 11 review that goes into the new features in-depth. There's one area where we suspect the 8 Plus and 7 Plus will outpace other iPhones, though, and it's a major focus for Apple: augmented reality.

If you're deciding between an iPhone and an Android phone, on the other hand, there are a few areas where Apple and Google differ, although the two OSes are broadly similar in capabilities nowadays. We'd focus on Messages, the AR/VR split, services, and privacy.

If you have a lot of friends with iPhones, and you live in the US, Messages could help make your decision for you. Messages is the iPhone's default texting app (formerly iMessage), and it has much richer group messaging, presence, and stickers than SMS does. Later this year, it'll also get Venmo-like abilities to send money between iPhone owners. In countries where everybody uses Whatsapp or WeChat, this isn't such a big deal. But in the US, where default texting apps dominate, Messages tends to build iPhone-only social groups that can leave Android users out of the loop. If at least several of your other friends have Android phones, though, it won't have the critical mass to matter so much.

Apple is going big on augmented reality where Android is stronger on virtual reality. AR is about placing virtual objects in the real world; VR is about strapping on a headset and shooing the real world away. So far, there's no VR solution for iPhones, and Google is several months behind Apple on AR. I think AR has a broader appeal, because VR headsets tend to get sweaty and a little claustrophobic.

If you're interested in AR, I'd say go with the 8 Plus rather than the regular iPhone 8. And go with the 8 Plus rather than the 7 Plus. Not only do I suspect that dual cameras will offer a better AR experience in the future, a bigger screen gives you a better window into an augmented world, and the new A11 processor is specifically tuned for AR apps. It's safe to say this will be the best AR phone until we see the iPhone X.

If you aren't focused on AR or Messages, your decision may come down to whether you prefer Apple's services or Google's. Each company's music, mail, photo and cloud services work best on their own OS. Apple really wants you to use Apple Music, for example; if you ask Siri to play music, she'll try to do it through Apple Music. Similarly, iCloud is baked more deeply into the OS than other cloud services. The Gmail experience on iOS is okay, but it's better on Android. You get the drill.

Finally, Apple is stronger on privacy than Google is. Google's business is data, and you should assume it's collecting data on everything you do. Apple's business is primarily hardware, and it's less likely to share your data with others.

Comparisons and Conclusions

The iPhone 8 Plus is ready for the future, which makes it our favorite iPhone so far—but then again, we haven't tested the iPhone X yet.

At $799 for 64GB and $949 for 256GB, the 8 Plus is less expensive than its primary competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Like we saw with the iPhone 7 Plus, the second camera brings real value to the 8 Plus, and that's one of the reasons we recommend it over the iPhone 8. But in this generation, with Apple's new focus on augmented reality, we also think big screens are the way to go. A bigger-screen phone makes augmented reality applications easier to view and manipulate.

The wild card here is the upcoming iPhone X. The X is going to share a lot in common with the 8 Plus. They have the same processor and roughly the same cameras, although the X has image stabilization on the second, zoom camera that might improve low-light performance. And the X's sleeker design is going to fit better in the hand than the 8 Plus does, which could make it the best of both worlds: the big-screen, dual-camera power of the 8 Plus, without the 2014-era giant bezels.

What about iPhone or Android? It's really a matter of ecosystem. The 8 Plus has a better processor than leading Android competitors such as the Galaxy Note 8 and LG V30. The cameras just about match, while the 8 Plus' screen and LTE connectivity aren't quite as good. Ultimately, the iPhone's strength isn't in the specs. It's in the community and support—the ability to join group Messages chats with other iPhone users, to get things fixed quickly at a Genius Bar, and to be the first to see cutting-edge, gorgeously designed new augmented reality games.

We're recommending three iPhones right now: the low-cost iPhone SE, which needs a processor update but is the best price-performance value; the iPhone 7, which at $549 gets you a modern, AR-ready phone with a stellar camera for a reasonable price; and the 8 Plus, at $799. Those make a terrific good-better-best lineup for Apple fans, until the X arrives.

I'm not one to draw conclusions before actually reviewing a phone, so I look forward to checking out the iPhone X and editing this section based on my experiences. But for now, the 64GB iPhone 8 Plus is our favorite premium iPhone, and our Editors' Choice.

About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.

Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed to the Frommer's series of travel guides and Web sites for more than a decade. Other than his home town of New York, his favorite ... See Full Bio